Best Practices for Fair Use in Online Video (Video)

Last month the University of New Hampshire (UNH) held its very own Video in Education conference. Kaltura was a proud participant and sponsor. Over 100 faculty members, students and IT professionals from UNH and near-by schools attended. Many of them showcased innovative ways in which video is being used in the classroom.

For us at Kaltura, it was extremely exciting to see so many of the use cases our solutions are targeted for “come to life” with students and teachers creating video to make learning more engaging. In that respect, The University of New Hampshire has been an ongoing source of inspiration for us, constantly pushing the boundaries of integrating video with academic studies. The results are highly creative and professional videos created by faculty and students.

The professors at the event said that the students had to develop new skills and acquire new knowledge to handle this challenge. One of the issues was using copyright protected material. In the following video Krista Jackman, who teaches at the English Department talks about using popular songs in student videos.

For those of you who are wondering what are the basic fair use guidelines, we compiled the following list:

Motion Media

“Up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less, in the aggregate of a copyrighted motion media work may be reproduced or otherwise incorporated as part of a multimedia project created under Section 2 of these guidelines.” (Confu)

Text Material

“Up to 10% or 1000 words, whichever is less, in the aggregate of a copyrighted work consisting of text material may be reproduced or otherwise incorporated as part of a multimedia project created under Section 2 of these guidelines.” (Confu)

Music, Lyrics and Music Video

“Up to 10%, but in no event more than 30 seconds, of the music and lyrics from an individual musical work (or in the aggregate of extracts from an individual work), whether the musical work is embodied in copies, or audio or audiovisual works, may be reproduced or otherwise incorporated as a part of a multimedia project created under Section 2. Any alterations to a musical work shall not change the basic melody or the fundamental character of the work.” (Confu)

Filming in Public Places

Another issue, which came up during the conference, was using a release form when filming other students. Catherine Moran, Senior Lecturer at the Sociology Department shared an interesting example about why these forms are often important.

To learn more about using release forms – we recommend reading this document that was created by Stanford University.

What’s next?

This is a partial list that includes only some of the legal issues one must consider when using video. We recommend doing further research once you have a clear idea about which copyright materials you plan to use. Many resources are available here.

Stay tuned for more great videos from the UNH Video in Education conference.

There’s lots to keep in mind when making a video for educational purposed for sure. As far as music goes, there is lots out there that you can use freely in your video. Creative Commons keeps a list of where you can find this music: